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Johannesburg – International Business Machines Corp. is ramping up its digital-skills training program to accommodate as many as 25 million Africans in the next five years, looking toward building a future workforce on the continent.
The US tech giant plans to make an initial investment of 945 million rand ($70 million) to roll out the training initiative in South Africa, a country where 31% of 15-to-24 year-olds are unemployed, according to Statistics South Africa.
At the same time, the program will be started at IBM’s offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt, enabling an expansion of the project across the rest of the continent.
“Africa will have the largest workforce by 2040 and IBM wants to lay the foundation blocks to build a digital workforce,’’ Juan Pablo Napoli, head of IBM Skills Academy, said by phone from Dubai. “We will be providing a free cloud-based learning platform able to train people from basic computer skills to high-end app development.”
The move may help bring and keep digital jobs in Africa instead of losing them to India, said Hamilton Ratshefola, IBM’s country manager for South Africa. As many as 50,000 such jobs are currently farmed out from Africa, predominantly to India, Ratshefola said.
Harare, February 07, 2017 – SOUTH AFRICA’s government is set to deport at least 200 000 Zimbabweans living in its territory ahead of the much anticipated general elections in 2018.
The deportations will come following the expiry of Special Dispensation Permits of Zimbabweans on December 3 last year.
South African Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said his country could no longer accommodate the high numbers of Zimbabweans domiciled in the country hence the need to effect the law on the migrants.
“We cannot offer permanent residency for such a high number of people,” said Gigaba.
The deportations will come at a time when the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will start registering voters ahead of the general elections.
The Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) is expected to start in March 2017.
It will capture voters’ unique biometric features, specifically fingerprints and facial imaging which will be recorded in a database.
It is believed that close to three million Zimbabweans are domiciled outside the country.
Minister Gigaba said there were 197 000 foreigners on the special permit arrangement, adding that he would make an announcement on the ZSP before the end of this month.
The South African minister said he was hoping that a decision by cabinet will act in favour of the migrants urging the Zimbabweans to opt for other visas despite the government tightening screws on the visas as it was setting quotas on foreigners working or running business in the Southern African country.
“We will make a well-thought-out decision, hopefully with the support of my cabinet colleagues,’ he said.
The Home Affairs minister said South Africa is set start enforcing South African laws requiring that 60 percent of all workforces should be made up of locals in the hospitality sector.
South Africa already has law that enforces the number of foreigners in the construction, agriculture and mining industries.
Roshan Dadoo of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa said the looming end of the ZSP made no sense as it could lead to Zimbabweans with jobs in the country being declared illegal.
At least 200 000 Zimbabweans in South Africa face deportation at the expiry of their special dispensation permits on December 31.
The figure is a far cry from the alleged 3 million touted by Zimbabwean opposition political parties as the number of Zimbabweans resident in South Africa as they seek to cast aspersions on Government.
South African Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba was quoted in the South African media last week, saying the special permit arrangement could not continue forever.
He said some Zimbabweans might be forced to regularise their stay in that country or apply for visas like other foreigners.
“We cannot offer permanent residency for such a high number of people,” said Minister Gigaba.
Minister Gigaba said there were 197 000 people on the special permit arrangement, adding that he would make an announcement on the ZSP before the end of this month.
He urged Zimbabweans to take full advantage of other visas provided by South Africa.
“We will make a well-thought-out decision, hopefully with the support of my cabinet colleagues.”
Minister Gigaba said his government was considering setting quotas on the number of foreigners interested in working or running businesses in South Africa.